Bending machines are known which have a rotatable bending disc, which is provided with a central bending mandrel and an eccentrically located bending tool, and a stationary, adjustable steadying arm.
A bending machine of this type, which is suitable for bending wires, bars, pipes or the like, is known from German Patent Disclosure Document 22 21 185, Fasholz. In that machine, the steadying arm is inserted into stationary slotted control arms, which are displaceable in their longitudinal direction in accordance with the diameter of the material to be bent. The bending disc is located with its bending tools between the slotted control arms. At the beginning of each bending operation, the stationary steadying arm and the eccentrically located bending tool are both on one side of the material to bent, and the central bending mandrel is located on the opposite side. When the bending direction changes, the material to be bent must be located on the opposite side of the central bending mandrel, and both the steadying arm and the eccentric bending tool must be moved to the other side of the material to be bent. The steadying arm is reinserted manually into the corresponding slot of the slotted control arm, and the control arm must sometimes additionally be readjusted in its longitudinal direction.
The disadvantage of this construction is that setting up the steadying arm entails considerable effort, and because of the manual reinsertion and adjustment, mistakes cannot be precluded.
A bending machine is also known from German Patent Disclosure Document 38 16 005 Peruzzi, in which a pair of movable steadying arms is supported on a stationary frame carrying the bending disc. Each steadying arm can be pivoted by a drive mechanism out of a working position into a position of repose. Depending on the bending direction, one steadying arm at a time, in its working position, cooperates with the bending tools, while the other steadying arm is contrarily pivoted 90.degree. into the position of repose, so as not to hinder the bending motion of the bending tool. If the diameter of the material to be bent changes, the steadying arms are displaced vertically with respect to their stop face, which is in the working position, by the aid of drive elements. This construction has the disadvantage that driving and controlling the two steadying arms is very complicated and expensive, and it also has the deficiency that because the working position of the steadying arms is defined fixedly relative to the bending elements, only the ends of the bars can be bent in different directions at a time.